Oh!!!How to cook????

This story dates back to four years. After joining TCS, I completed my ILP(Initial Learning Programme) in Pune and got posted at Chennai. I reached Chennai on 27-Oct-2006 (got enough memory to remember this date). The city welcomed me with heavy rains (Chennai cried on the thought of karthik settling in this city). After a week's search for house, I got settled in a 2BHK with four (BN, KC, Manju, Piyush) of my colleagues in Thiruvanmiyur.

Like every house, this too got a kitchen, where we used to keep the water cans. The moment our throat becomes dry, we enter kitchen for water; else, this room remained untouched. We used to eat in hotels. We used to eat dinner together and that too in 5Star hotel (neither 5star nor the name of the hotel; these are road-side stalls). Our mantra (most of the time, its my mantra) for dinner was, "Spend Rs.15/- in 5Star and eat belly full".

Nearly two months passed by. One fine day, BN's(Sandeep BN) parents turned up. I came back from office at 7PM and was shocked to see our house (the kitchen :D). The kitchen has been set up, with a mini electric stove and the utensils brought by his parents. Even more happy I felt, when I saw the vessel in the electric stove. Wonder what it was!!!Sambar-my favourite. Persons who have seen me for the past four years know the importance of Sambar to me. "Don't drink Sambar"-this is the comment thrown upon me everytime.

I interacted with BN's mother and tried to help her in the kitchen, as I know cooking(Don't be astonished). We had a happy meal on that day and it was nice till BN's parents stayed with us, as we got home-made food (hope the bachelors who eat outside knows the importance of home-made food).

Now starts the real story!!!

BN's parents left and the same old story continued(Kalutha ketta kutti chuvaru). We used the kitchen, only to drink water. I was the only cook, who didn't had time to cook (Don't think that I worked too much. Used to be on call for most of the time). My roomies didn't even know to keep hot water using the electric stove (roomies-don't feel bad on the secret being revealed). I used to promise them that I would prepare food for them someday(some day never turned up).

One sunny day(oops!!Chennai is always sunny), I started to office as usual, compeleted my work(my teammates knew about the work I did during my initial tenure) and started back to home around 8PM. While passing through a general store, Maggi(not a girl) attracted me.

'Maggi in 2mins', was the first thought that came to my mind. I bought a Rs.10/- Maggi(Flavour-Masala) packet. On reaching home, I entered kitchen directly and kept a vessel, partly filled with water for boiling in the electric stove. In the meantime, I changed dress.

On returning to Kitchen, I emptied the masala flavour in the boiling water and added Maggi noodles. I waited for more than 2mins(electrice stove takes time to cook :D). The noodles got cooked, and I emptied them into a plate. I kept the vessel for washing and moved to bedroom with the plate.

Piyush was shocked to see me, holding a plate with some cooked stuff. And the first question that amazed me was, "Oh!!!You know to cook Maggi???" and it was followed by "How to cook Maggi?". I laughed a bit. Then I explained him about the process to cook maggi(What a tough process; Boil water and put maggi in that). He was satisfied with my answer, but the most surprising question came next.
Piyush: So, tell me PK, Where did you learn to cook Maggi?
After a flurry of explanation, Piyush was happy.

Thereafter, things changed.

As Necessity is the mother of all invention, my roomies learnt to cook. I have tasted the food cooked by Kc. This fella cooks really well. Hope he thanks his guru(I think it's me)

Catch ya folks in the next post:)

Worst but memorable incident (oops, its accident)

It has been a week since I wrote my first post. What is very special about 17-July, which made me to write my second post. I am celebrating the first anniversary of an important occasion. Last year, on the same day, I met with a bike accident. One of the most rememberable incidents in my life and am going to narrate the incident in this post.

The sequence of events started from 16-July-2009. The sixth part of Harry Potter (Half-Blood Prince) got released on this day. As we (Satyakiran-roomie & I)are great fans of Harry, we booked tickets for the show in Satyam at 10.30PM (First day, First show). My roomie was hosting a dinner party on that day. Hence, I started from office at 5PM. We went to the restaurant (Flamingo-Velachery; People in Chennai must have heard about this restaurant) at 7.30PM. At 10PM, we came out of the restaurant after having completely stuffed our stomach.

Considering the distance to be covered to reach theatre and the traffic, we realized that we need to race with time to reach the show on time. He was my pillion rider and we both enjoyed the breeze(Not on every occasion, we have a breeze hitting upon us in Chennai) while going in the bike (Apache RTR 160 FI).



The fastest part of the ride was, when I clocked 4mins while riding in the Mount Road (Anna Salai) from Nandanam to traffic signal at Satyam (nearly 5 signals in between these two signals). People in Chennai would realize as how fast this ride was:) We reached the show exactly when the minute hand touched 6, while the hour hand was between 10 and 11.

Like every Harry Potter fan, I enjoyed the movie very much. It was a pleasant ride on our way back home and I slept by 2.30AM. I woke up at 4.00AM to receive my friends mom (Ansar's mom; she is a best friend of mine). I accompanied her till the her destination and came back to room by 8AM. I slept by 9AM and woke up at 10.30AM to meet a friend of Santhosh (Santhosh is one of my best friends. Currently, hiding in US:D and not showing his face at all). Even though, I was feeling very much sleepy, still I woke up, took bath (something which I hate at times:D) and reached Adyar by 12Noon to meet his friend.

I met Avinash (Santhosh's friend) and bought a T-shirt to present to Santhosh. All those formalities got over by 1PM. Now starts the real story...

I was feeling very sleepy and very much hungry too as I didn't eat breakfast. After thinking a lot, I felt it is good to go to office, which is 2kms from Adyar. Main reason being, I can go to Virudhunagar (not the name of the place, its the name of restaurant) located in the food court and taste Chicken briyani over there. Antha chicken briyanikku asa pattu than, accident nadandichu (those who don't understand Tamil, plz bear with me)

I took the bridge over Buckingham Canal (not in England, its in Chennai) from Adyar to Rajiv Gandhi (R.G.) Road. Successfully reached the side lane of R.G. Road. I was driving towards the Tidel Park Signal at a speed of 65KMPH (koncham over kolluppu than). While I was about to enter the Rajiv Gandhi Road from the side lane, I just closed my eyes for a moment(lack of sleep took a toll on me) and opened. The very next moment, I realized that I am going to meet with an accident.

Inorder to prevent a collision with another bike coming in the R.G. Road, I applied brakes (Applied the front brakes at a speed of 65KMPH), the worst thing I did. Collision averted successfully!!! In a fraction of seconds, I was thrown away from the bike (flew from the bike). I slided for a distance of almost 70ft in the road, with my bike sliding behind me. Luckily, the bike hit the side ramp and stopped.

What were the injuries??The jeans pant in the right knee was torn off, and blood was oozing out. Blood was oozing out in the right hip, with my white T-shirt slowly turning into red in this part. The front side of the white T-shirt looked black in colour (As the T-shirt cleaned the road, while I was sliding). Right palm was full of scratches, as 70% of the palm was covered with blood. Then, minor injuries (I say minor, because the intensity was less compared to the right side of the body) on the left elbow and knee.



What was the first thing I did after getting up from the road. I slid my hands in the pant pocket, took my mobile out and checked whether it was working fine or not:) (The mobile costed Rs. 13,000/- & my mind was engrossed in this electronic instrument rather than my body, at that instant). Even in that tension, I smiled happily as my mobile was not damaged (itha than, ranagalathulayum gilugiluppunu solrathu). I turned back to have a look at my bike. Badly damaged:(

The accident happened exactly opposite to Tidel Park. I phoned one of my colleague cum friend (Arvind). "You look like a beggar in this costume", by Arvind(He commented on seeing me). Few vehicles passing that way stopped and offered help.

Then, I went to hospital, TVS Showroom (to leave my bike for repair) and reached home.

Even though it was a worst day, I don't want to forget the accident. It taught me few lessons, which I have implemented after my recovery.
1) Never ride a bike when you feel sleepy.
2) Don't overspeed
It took me three weeks to recover(recovered 80% by 7-Aug) from the injuries.

I think that I have narrated too much about this accident. Chal, c ya!!!

Meet you all in the next post:)

My First bike ride in the hills

This is my first blog and am completely clueless as how should I start this blog. Here goes the story!!!

I love to ride bikes and used to ride APACHE (RTR 160 FI), when I was in Chennai. Its been a month, since my college started and I did not get a chance to ride a bike during this duration. My college is situated on the top of the hill (the area is named as LAVALE). By God's grace, I got the chance on 10-7-2010 (Saturday).

My classes got over by 2.30PM, and I went to play Badminton in the evening by 4PM. The game got over by 5PM, and four of us planned to go to city by bike. One bike and four persons (What a perfect plan!!!!). Now, we are on the lookout for a second bike and then I remembered my roomie (Nice that he is down with a fever (sorry Siddharth), due to which I used his bike).

Our planned start was at 6.30PM and we did started in time (Time management, as we are managers!!!!). What next??A happy ride as everyone would think!!

Of course, the onlookers felt happy, as I was moving the bike rather than riding. Even a child would say that these vehicles need Petrol to run. Very less amount of petrol in bike (cursed my roomie then). We were much dependent on the other bike as their job was to go ahead of us, to get petrol for our bike. I moved the bike till the start of the slope. My pillion rider (Raunak) was as happy as me on seeing the slope. Then I kept the gear control in 'Neutral' and we descended down the slope.

It was a cloudy evening and with cool breeze hitting upon us, our bike slowly descended down the slope and gained momentum. Luckily the brakes worked:) and I was in full control of the bike in each curve.

It was my first ever bike ride in a hilly area and what a way to start, by using a bike which has got less petrol in it:) On reaching the end of the hill, we covered nearly 2kms, before our fellow biker found a shop which provides Petrol. My mouth opened into a broad smile on seeing it. We continued the journey and had a nice time in the city. Happy ending:)